Chemical in Fast Foods and Coffee Tied with Breast Cancer Risk

According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, acrylamide is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. However, epidemiologic evidence on the carcinogenicity of acrylamide from dietary sources is limited.

This study aimed to investigate the associations between dietary acrylamide and breast cancer risk in the NutriNet-Santé cohort, accounting for menopausal and hormone receptor status.

Study Details

This prospective cohort study included 80,597 French females (mean ± SD age at baseline: 40.8 ± 14 years) during a mean ± SD follow-up of 8.8 ± 2.3 years. Acrylamide intake was evaluated using repeated 24-hour dietary records (n ± SD = 5.5 ± 3.0), linked to a comprehensive food composition database. Associations between acrylamide intake and breast cancer risk (overall, premenopausal, and postmenopausal) were assessed by Cox hazard models adjusted for known risk factors (sociodemographic, anthropometric, lifestyle, medical history, and nutritional factors).

Results

• The mean ± SD dietary acrylamide intake was 30.1 ± 21.9 µg/d.
• During follow-up, 1016 first incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed.
• A borderline significant positive association was observed between dietary acrylamide exposure and breast cancer risk overall, and a positive association was observed with premenopausal cancer.
• Restricted cubic spline analyses suggested evidence for nonlinearity of these associations, with higher HRs for intermediate (quartile 2) and high (quartile 4) exposures.
• Receptor-specific analyses revealed positive associations with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (total and premenopausal).
• Acrylamide intake was not associated with postmenopausal breast cancer.

Results from this large prospective cohort study suggest a positive association between dietary acrylamide and breast cancer risk, especially in premenopausal females, and provide new insights that support continued mitigation strategies to reduce the content of acrylamide in food.

Reference

Alice Bellicha, et al. Dietary exposure to acrylamide and breast cancer risk: results from the NutriNet-Santé cohort. PMID: 36055962 DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqac167

Keywords

• Dietary
• Exposure
• Acrylamide
• Breast
• Cancer
• Risk
• Results
• NutriNet-Santé
• Cohort
• Food processing
• Neo-formed contaminant
• Alice Bellicha
• Gaëlle Wendeu-Foyet
• Xavier Coumoul
• Meriem Koual
• Fabrice Pierre
• Françoise Guéraud
• Laurent Zelek
• Charlotte Debras
• Bernard Srour
• Laury Sellem
• Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot
• Chantal Julia
• Pilar Galan
• Serge Hercberg
• Mélanie Deschasaux-Tanguy
• Mathilde Touvie
• The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition